Air Ventures Hot Air Balloon Flights, Inc

03/08/2018 10:58AM
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By Stone Lieberman

By Richard L. Gaw

Staff Writer

Normally, the launch of a life's passion begins at a
particular speck of time, a point of pure clarity that crystallizes one's
purpose down to a single moment, but to trace Deb Harding's life in order to
understand why hot air balloon flight has become her life's work is to count
the moments off, one by one.

As a grade schooler growing up in Devon, she read a biography
of Amelia Earhart. Around that time, she stumbled upon a flight manual,
assuming at first that it belonged to her father but later finding out it was
her mother's. By the time she was old enough, Harding began to take her own
flight lessons at Shannon Airport and Wings Field.

“When I was in my late twenties, a girlfriend asked me if a
wanted to go on a balloon flight with her,” said Harding, who has owned and
operated Chester County-based Air Ventures Hot Air Balloon Flights, Inc. since
1990. “She and her husband were given a flight as a gift, and he didn’t want
his feet to leave the ground, so I told her, 'Sure, of course.' It wasn’t
really love at first flight, and it wasn’t until later when I met the pilot on
the ground that I became smitten with the idea that “Life is about the journey
and not the destination.'”

The pilot then made Harding an offer that changed her life.

“He said he would teach me to fly for free if I would crew for
him,” she said. “Hot air ballooning is a group sport. You can’t fly without
crew, and the best flight times for ballooning are right at sunrise and two
hours before sunset, so it was very easy for me to continue my nine-to-five job
and continue to enjoy an early-morning flight or an evening of flying after
work.”

Fore the past 28 years, from team-building activities to
romantic excursions to dinner and Sunday brunch, Air Ventures Hot Air Balloon
Flights have become pilots of the skies, revealing the beauty of Chester County
like a portrait for individuals, couples, families and businesses. Throughout
the year, the company's signature neon-colored balloons can be seen over Marsh
Creek, Longwood Gardens, even as far as Winterthur.

From Air Venture launch sites in Eagle and Chester Springs on a
clear day, the view from the balloon includes the Delaware River Bay area and
the Philadelphia skyline.

“We've seen Bald Eagles fly right beside our balloons, seen
people tubing on the Brandywine River, and flown over beautiful estates, hunt
scenes and colorful trees of fall,” Harding said. “In the balloon or from the
ground, who doesn’t love a balloon? It brings out the child-like awe in
everyone.”

Now well into its second decade, the Chester County Balloon
Festival was first developed as a fundraising event to raise money for the West
Bradford Youth Association, in order to help the group cover maintenance fees
associated with the soccer fields. Since moving to the New Garden Flying Field
in Toughkenamon in 2015, however, the festival – sponsored in part by Air
Ventures – has become one of Chester County's most successful annual events.
The expanded three-day schedule includes the flight – and illumination – of
more than 20 hot-air balloons, plane and helicopter rides, scuba diving
lessons, zipline rides, food and craft vendors, and remote control plane
demonstrations, fireworks and local bands. In the past three years, more than
50,000 people have attended the festival.

“The Chester County Balloon Festival allows us to highlight
Chester County, general aviation and family fun, through this long time Chester
County activity of ballooning,” Harding said. “The experience that Flying Field
General Manager Jon Martin brings to the table – with his long history of
running a successful airs shows at the Flying Field, and the expanded three day
schedule – have allowed us to have a successful festival in recent years. The
venue lends itself perfectly to have more aviation related entertainment.”

As the Chester County Balloon Festival staff and volunteers
prepare for the 12th annual Chester County Balloon Festival from June 22-24 at
the New Garden Flying Field, they do so with the understanding that there is
another component to the mission of the festival.

On a recommendation from Rick Schimpf, Air Ventures' long time
balloonmiester and crew chief – and a
volunteer firefighter for the Lionville Fire Station – recommended that the
festival also serve as a fundraiser for the Chester County Hero Fund, which
provides necessary financial assistance to the widows, children, and families
who are left with little or no support when a police officer, deputy sheriff,
firefighter, emergency medical technician, paramedic or state trooper loses
his/her life or is seriously injured in the line of duty.

“Several years ago, Rick was on a fire call in West Chester,
where a fireman was killed,” Harding said. “He saw that the Chester County Hero
Fund was at that family's door the very next day with a check to support the
family during this traumatic time. With the first garnering of support from Jon
Martin, the Chester County Balloon Festival has been able to raise both funds
and awareness of the Chester County Hero Fund, promote the science and
education of aviation and the airport, as well as showcase the many youth
organizations that promote leadership and community.”

Throughout her life, Harding has flown in hot air balloons in
five of the seven continents of the world, and became the first woman to pilot
a hot air balloon over the North Pole. While she may count the Loire Valley in
France as among the most beautiful vistas she has seen, rare is the day that
goes by when she is not grateful to own a hot air balloon company in Chester
County.

“Everything is perfect from above, and when you are aloft, you
think of nothing else but just the moment you are in,” Harding said. “I
consider ballooning an activity that is best shared, unlike fixed wing where
you can roll out your plane and go fly.

“Chester County is beautiful, and who wouldn’t want to see it
from all of its many angles?”

To learn more about Air
Ventures Hot Air Balloon Flights, visit www.air-ventures.com, or call
800-826-6361. To learn more about the 12th annual Chester County Balloon
Festival, visit www.ccballoonfest.com.